Mother of eight let off for abandoning kids for two weeks
I’m starting to think you could get by writing just about the mental illness defense in the Australian court system and devote an entire site to it.
The latest example of leniency in our courts was granted to an unnamed mother (to protect the children of course) from Katoomba in the Blue Mountains of NSW. She abandoned her eight children, aged three to fifteen to meet up with a man she met over the internet in Melbourne.
No I’m not making this up.
The mother assumed her ex defacto partner would pop in and check on them every now and then to make sure everything was ok because you know, it’d worked out two times before. This time around the ex was in hospital with a abscess under his arm but that didn’t stop the mother leaving anyway.
She left $150 with her eldest (15) and it was sayonara off to Melbourne to to meet her e-boyfriend. The woman collects $2000 a fortnight ($50,000+ a year tax free) in welfare payments so with $150 of that going to the kids over two weeks you can imagine where the rest went.
Six of her children suffered from haemophilia, a blood disease that prevents the blood from clotting, but at least the mother wasn’t a total cow and had the decency to keep the life saving medication in the house.
It was locked up in her bedroom, to which none of the children had the key to.
When apprehended in Melbourne after concerns were raised by neighbours she stated that “she thought her children would survive on Nutella sandwiches”.
Nutella is a chocolate spread.
In her defense she cited that she was depressed and needed a holiday from her children. Yes life had dealt this donkey of a parent a tough blow. What with random circumstance forcing her to have unprotected sex at least eight times.
Yes I feel for the poor depressed widdle diddums.
The state of the house was described by magistrate Helen Barry as “squalored, putrid and uninhabitable, while littered with dirty clothes, nappies and food scraps and contained broken glass from shattered windows, bottles and a shower screen”.
Here are some photos of the atrocious environment the children were left to fend for themselves in:
“This is not simply a case of neglect, six of the children have a potentially life-threatening condition and were left in a manifestly dangerous and appalling condition without any attempt by their primary carer to inquire as to their welfare for more than one week.”
She said the community had a right to be outraged and “any alternative to a custodial sentence would in my view fail to reflect the objective seriousness of the offence.”
The Magistrate then sentenced the mother to a suspended 30 month sentence. That’s right, this woman is back home with her kids living life as if nothing ever happened.
Somehow, I don’t think anybody has learnt their lesson here.
Well at least the kids are reportedly safe for now, that is until mummy jumps on the internet again and then jet sets off to find someone else to pay for everything. Maybe she’ll have a crack at the baby bonus again soon and additionally up that salary of hers too.
Nadia Sulaiman is a freaking saint compared to this woman. Helen Barry should be ashmed of herself.
June 10th, 2009 at 3:19 am Van Santos(Quote)
You assume someone is going to show up? WTF! Not to sound crass, but, part of me thinks some people shouldn’t breed.
A 32 year old woman should know better, EVEN if she has a depressive episode. A total break from reality is a different story (and one she is not claiming).
Pisses me off.
June 10th, 2009 at 10:35 am Cuteface(Quote)
Well well well… here I am again to do my ‘psycho-babble’…
Now, in this case, this mother is simply ignorant and her claim of depressoin is highly questionable!
Why? Well, first of all, she was well enough to be so eager to meet her e-lover, in other words, her affect / emotion / cognitive respond was not impaired. Put it this way, if her head is clear enough to go meet her boyfriend, then it should also be clear enough to know that she left her eight babies on their own, and it’s not fine.
Next, this woman made a lot of ‘assumptions’ – assumed that her ex-fiance would check on the kids, and assumed that her kids can survive on nutella sandwiches. I can tell you as a mental health professional, this woman was lying. You ask me why? Well, individuals with depression generally make assuptions for the worst, due to their pemissimistic personality. That means this woman should assume that her babied will die within one hours of her leaving the house etc, if she really suffered from depression.
Last but not least, she was aware of the children’s medical conditions and kept their medications in her room. It is different to some severe cases where the mother does not and could not understand that their child was sick. This is simply ignorant and selfish.
I would urge the court to reconsider their sentence, and provide her with a well-trained psychologist AND a psychiatrist to re-assess her condition. I am sure the result will be somehow suprising!!!
June 12th, 2009 at
[...] External: Mother of 8 leaves kids for a few weeks to meet with internet beau June 11, 2009 [...]
September 1st, 2009 at
[...] there’s the case of the $50,000 a year welfare mum of eight who left her kids to fend for themselves for two weeks with $150 while she chased down an internet [...]